Some older articles that I was able to read recently. Pat states how misguided our post cold war foreign policy has been:

“For Americans of the Greatest Generation that fought World War II and of the Silent Generation that came of age in the 1950s, the great moral and ideological cause was the Cold War.

It gave purpose and clarity to our politics and foreign policy, and our lives.

From the fall of Berlin in 1945 to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, that Cold War was waged by two generations, and with its end Americans faced a fundamental question:

If the historic struggle between communism and freedom is over, if the Soviet Empire and Soviet Union no longer exist, if the Russians wish to befriend us and the Maoists have taken the capitalist road, what is our new mission in the world? What do we do now?”

Another more recent article, Pat questions whether or not the US policy has done any good in the middle east or if we have in fact isolated or only key ally in the region? Have we made any chance for peace that much more difficult?

“With the truce in the week-long Gaza war, Barack Obama is being prompted by right and left to re-engage and renew U.S. efforts to solve the core question of Middle East peace.

Before he gets reinvolved in peacemaking, our once-burned president should ask himself some hard questions.

Is real peace between Palestinians and Israelis even possible?

Is there any treaty that could be agreed to, or imposed, that would be acceptable to Israel and the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank, let alone to Hamas, which has emerged from its defiance of one of the most intensive bombardments of modern time with new prestige?

Can’t say I disagree with him. What are the unintended consequences of this misguided policy? How much longer can we maintain the empire abroad? I’m not even currently advocating Ron Paul’s “bring every single troop home”, but do we still need 54,000 troops in Germany, 34,000 in Japan, and tens of thousands more in Korea (and the list goes on)? Why are we subsidizing their defense? Where do we draw the line?